Hidden away in an undescript industrial estate in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, RV HiFi sits pretty in its
Ali-Baba cavern. under the tender love and care of its owner, the colourful Rob d'Angelo. Rob is a joiner by trade, which comes handy when it's time to repair speakers that have seen better days... And you will find speakers at plenty, with quite a number of Bose 901s, a model we all dream should have been Bose's last incarnation. Alas, commercial pressure gave birth to the Acoustimass and the Lifestyle systems... At RV HIFI, you will find primarily good 70s and 80s japanese electronics, although I spotted the ubiquitous Beomaster, a good deal of open reel tape recorders, a plethora of cassette decks that one could probably have for a song (sic!) and a rare Nakamichi. The good stuff apparently is hidden away at Rob's place which I didn't get a chance to visit on our first date - well, he is of Italian descent after all! Rob has also designed an interesting range of retro-futurist hifi furniture and hopefully this article will trigger some interest, as I believe the look and the level of craftsmanship are certainly worth investigating. It uses birch plywood, so I am sold already! So, if you are after one of these well crafted Japanese beauties of yesteryear, call Rob and go and explore his Ali Baba kingdom - you won't be disappointed, I promise! Santa Claus included in His shipment of goodies this lovely, simple and inexpensive new toy - and I gather my friend Len Wallis had a hand in this this... But between my own travels, visitors from overseas and...work, I have not had a chance to try this wonderful addition to my hifi kingdom. We are experiencing a very strong storm here in Sydney, really the tail of a cyclone hitting the Coast 6 hours drive north, so it is a good time to set it up (a breeze...sic) and clean a few records and take the time to listen to the results. First cab off the rank is "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" by Simon and Garfunkel, a 1969 CBS record pressed in Holland and purchased in Paris for 49.00 francs, which was quite a sum at the time) which has seen many needles and turntables over the years (Dual 1219, Clement for a few nights, ERA 455, Rega Planar 3 since 194, and more recently Rega P1 branded NAD. BTW, as my daughter is in Paris for six months, I have pinched the glass platter of her (my old...) Planar 3 and installed it in the P1 which brings a significant improvement to the overall sound. Back to cleaning, after three spins clockwise and three counterclockwise and a good dry with the special doth provided, it has to be said that most of the surface noise is gone, and it brings clarity to the whole affair. For sure, there is still audible noise in the groove in between songs, indicating that the brushes are not doing a great job in the depth of the groove, but gently clean the upper part of it satisfactorily to bring back the music to a very low level of noise free enjoyment. Next I tried my original 1968 US pressing of the "White Album" from the Beatles bought in Mexico City at the time. This record has been abused at parties, on portable plasticky japanese player a la Teppaz, then on the same turntables as mentioned before. It is so damaged that I bought the 30th anniversary pressing which is still in pristine condition. However the 1968 pressing is still quite not there after the cleaning, as the needle collects a nice little fluff of dirt after the second side of the record finished playing. I think I will have to try a second clean another day and maybe keep it as a collector item, rather than a playable pleasure...I will let you know. (That's 25 years ago, mon Dieu...) Having said that, this Spin-Clean costs less than one hundred dollar and will restore most of your precious "galettes" to a listenable condition. To get something more efficient would cost about ten times more with a Clearaudio machine that would probably be my next choice up. But frankly, I rather spend the price difference on more records! Let me have your own cleaning stories... One of my friend and ex-HP colleague is selling his system after 25+ years of good service, because it is supposedly too big for his new "maison de campagne"... And I thought we had designed it to be the most "WAF" friendly system on the Planet! "Des gouts et des couleurs, on ne discute point"... So, if any of you dear readers are interested in a pristine Triton passive system at a bargain price, here is your chance! If I were not so far away, I would buy it myself, as I do not have this system in my collection. Being in Australia would probably cost me more in shipping than the gear itself, although I am tempted! Anyway, to do justice to the product and help out my friend Philippe, I have posted a review of this wonderful triphonic system as an add-on to a previous post featuring the active version of this magnificent piece of french vintage hifi! You will find the review written by Patrick Vercher in the now defunct "Revue du Son" here: http://www.frenchvintagehifi.com/1/post/2011/07/microphase-triton-active.html Any enquiries are welcome via our "contact" form Roquemaure is a picturesque village on the west bank of the Rhone river, drinking distance from Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Lirac, Tavel and many more famous wineries - including my favourite Cotes-du-Rhone: Vidal-Fleury! Christophe Bedel, the enthusiastic and knowledgeable owner of related website www.hifi-vintage-audiophile.fr has just been in contact with me asking if I could promote this event on my blog. I couldn't refuse! In fact, I am trying to convince Greg Borrowman from AHM, who will be in France at that time visiting Focal and hopefully Waterfall Audio to stop by and report on the only fair of this type I know of in the South of France! This is good timing too as a number of Festivals are happening in the region over the summer period, with usually a fantastic array of live concerts to choose from - Avignon being the most famous of them, but Uzes, Carpentras, Bagnols sur Ceze, La Roque d'Antheron ( a must!), Aix en Provence, Orange and Nimes all competing for your time (and good money..) So, if you are one of 43 out of 100 Australians out of the country at any given time, or one of my readers in any of the 70 countries or so where I have an audience, and if you happen to be in Provence for the European Summer, just drop by and have a look at the fantastic collection of vintage Hifi that will be on display and for sale! I will update this post with an exact address as soon as I get it, but if your French is good enough, then visit Christphe's website: www.hifi-vintage-audiophile.fr Samsung valve-based DA-E670 Audio Dock Ken Kessler will have a heart attack! The South Korean Electronics giant Samsung turn to valves (and Apple...) to spruce up their audio business. The new iPod/iPhone/iPad ghetto blaster uses a valve-based digital amplifier in this modern-retro combo, complete with integral sub and Apple Airplay! They have not forgotten their own Android clients, as this product is also compatible with the Galaxy range. C'est le monde a l'envers! French Vintage Hi Fi is celebrating its first birthday today!
It has been quite an adventure (and a challenge at times...) to dig into memories of great products and recounting stories of past and more recents audiophile pleasures. It has also been quite a success as we now command a steady flow of visitors from over 60 countries, some spending up to an hour to read my prose... Even better is the fact that we now rank on www.alexa.com, the worlwide reference in terms of one's identity on the Net. Merci beaucoup to all of you. I hope we will be able to give you even more information, more relevant to your passion and wider in scope. To this effect, I am opening a new page to talk about the real reason which HiFi exists: to reproduce music! I was going to call the new page "software" but instead I have settled on "Music". This new page will also be on a blog format, so you easily find an artist, a composer, a particular ensemble or a record company. we will endeavour to review analogue and digital formats and will indicate this in the "categories" navigation pane. Tell us what you would like us to talk about in the near future, or if you have a particular product you would like us to talk about. We will also accept and publish your own reviews of such vintage products. The main criteria to be published is to have a real ownership of and experience with such a product. If you are a manufacturer, we would like to hear from you as well, as it is sometime difficult for us to access information on vintage products. So, again thank a million for visiting and click here for our first "Music" instalment! |
AuthorBorn in France, well travelled, relocated to Sydney in 1997. Archives
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